Sustainable Whaling Is Just So Much Blubber - Lee

SUSTAINABLE WHALING IS JUST SO MUCH BLUBBERA background
feature by Sandra Lee, Minister of
Conservation,Wellington, New Zealand

New Zealand has a
proud reputation as a country that seeks the greatest
possible protection for whales worldwide and one that is
strongly opposed to a return to commercial whaling.

What
appears not to be as clearly understood is that New Zealand
has also consistently supported the traditional rights of
indigenous peoples for the customary harvesting of whales,
where these requests meet the criteria set down by the
International Whaling Commission (IWC).

The IWC criteria
for allowing indigenous quotas for the great whales, such as
gray whales and bowhead whales, (which all members of the
IWC agree fall under IWC control), require that the
Commission recognise both the cultural and subsistence needs
of the indigenous peoples seeking the quota.

In
recognition of the special needs of indigenous peoples,
quotas for indigenous whaling may be set for species whose
low population levels would not allow for commercial
whaling, provided that the level of take does not prevent a
recovery of the population.

An examination of the voting
record at the IWC on indigenous quotas demonstrates that,
with one exception in 1998, New Zealand has consistently
supported the allocation of quotas to indigenous peoples who
meet the IWC criteria.

It is of concern, therefore, that
the World Council of Whalers (WCW) continues to suggest that
the New Zealand Government and successive delegations to the
IWC have not supported the traditional harvesting rights of
indigenous whalers. This is simply not borne out by the
facts.

There is also no scientific justification for
assertions that there are more than a million minke whales
worldwide.

Indeed the July 2000 meeting of the IWC's
Scientific Committee totally rejected the often-quoted 1992
estimate of 760,000 minkes in the Southern Hemisphere,
noting that new survey data would result in a significantly
lower number.

At present, there is no accepted estimate
for Southern Hemisphere minke whale populations. The
populations of the other great whale species in the Southern
Hemisphere are mostly severely depleted. Blue, fin and sei
whales are at less than 5% of their numbers in 1900, while
humpbacks and southern rights are probably around
10%.

These facts call into question assertions during a
New Zealand visit late last year by Dan Goodman, a Japanese
Government delegate to last year's IWC meeting in Adelaide
(who is also expected to be present in Apia this week for
the SPREP meeting). He assured a Television New Zealand
programme that there are now 780,000 minke whales for the
taking in the Antarctic. The Japanese whaling fleet's
departure for Antarctic waters late last year, where it
intended killing up to 440 minke whales for supposed
research into their feeding patterns and stock structure
drew widespread international criticism. Dan Goodman tried
to assure New Zealanders that "taking 400 a year (was) a
very small number". However if the IWC's scientific
committee couldn't determine the population, how could Mr
Goodman and the Japanese whalers be certain of what was a
"small" number?

The implication that indigenous peoples
need to sell the products to fund their subsistence whaling
activities suggests confused thinking.

The IWC
specifically exempted indigenous peoples from the
restrictions placed on commercial whaling, including the
opportunity to hunt some depleted species, because it
recognised the particular needs.

It is fair to note that
some indigenous peoples are concerned that CITES, the
convention on international trade in endangered species, and
New Zealand's own domestic legislation preclude the export
of artwork and other products from whale material.

But
any failure on our part to do so would risk encouraging
illegal poaching by some countries, similar to the travesty
that is the black market in trade of elephant ivory.

Sadly, there have been examples in recent years of
illegal whaling operations involving attempts to smuggle
whale meat onto the lucrative Japanese market. DNA-testing
of meat on the markets of Tokyo and other Japanese cities
has revealed the presence of protected species such as blue
whale, sei whale and humpback whale.

Given that the great
majority of WCW members came from Arctic regions of the
North Atlantic and North Pacific, it appeared to be at best
a poor use of financial resources to select Aotearoa/New
Zealand as the venue for their Annual Meeting late last
year. It would be interesting to learn more about the
funding support that has enabled the WCW to bring so many
delegates such a long distance.

If the intention of the
organisers of the World Council of Whalers meeting was to
persuade the New Zealand Government to change its policies
on whaling, they would be disappointed.

At the end of the
day, Maori and other indigenous people need to be vigilant
to ensure that we are never used as stalking horses by those
seeking a resumption of commercial whaling interests. We
also must never ourselves be guilty of cultural
double-standards by being selective in espousing our
cultural relationship with these amazing ancient mammals of
the deep.

For my own people, at least, we must balance
our customary use of the material from stranded whales
against our other relationship with them. Some iwi (New
Zealand Maori tribes) regard the whale as an ancestor. My
own iwi holds to the tradition that we were guided by one to
New Zealand.

Perhaps the best message that iwi can
contribute is that the whale has sustained indigenous people
all the world over in times past, when the animals were not
massively hunted, and now we indigenous people have a duty
to sustain these amazing creatures for their own sake.

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